I wanted to finish with one of the stories that kicked off my love of the form. I still adore Saki’s short stories, and would name a cat after his mischievously wicked character Clovis. Saki’s sense of fun is unparalleled. But I think that Wilde and his ‘children’s stories’ pip Saki to the post (not that the stories should be restricted to children). There’s wit and vivid imagery in Wilde’s stories, but also a moral heart, and an anger at the state of the world. I read The Happy Prince and Other Stories when I was little, and then read them again, and had the stories on audio tape, when my daughter was young. I remembered them clearly. Neither my daughter or I can listen to ‘The Infanta’s Birthday’, it is far too painful, and although I like the imperious ‘Remarkable Rocket’ and the tragic nightingale giving her lifeblood for the wastrel lover in ‘The Nightingale and The Rose’, I think ‘The Happy Prince’ gets my vote.
A golden statue and a swallow, who plucks off the Prince’s gold and jewels and flies them to the student in the garret, the mother in the poor house and the match girl who has dropped her wares, all the time dreaming of his trip south to the warmth of Egypt. I think of the swallow in this story every time I see one swooping over my garden, and I think of the most precious things in the city, a leaden heart and a dead bird. Blimey, Wilde knew how to tug at the heartstrings.
From The Happy Prince and Other Stories, first published in 1888, and now widely published. Available to read online here
A Personal Anthology 